Epoxy Putty on a diet!

For a number of years I had been looking for a light weight epoxy putty, that would work basically like Magic Sculp or Apoxie Sculpt, but the cured material would be light in weight. Epoxy putties can be a great material for altering ventriloquist figure heads or puppet heads, but the problem has always been, the more  putty you add to the head, the more it is going to weigh!

 I always try to keep up with what is going on in the mold making and casting industry (I've been doing mold making and casting since the latter part of the 1960's), and so I came across a new product that looked promising. Its been so crazy busy here with making cast parts and finished figures for customers, I didn't even get around to ordering it for quite awhile, and then several weeks passed before I was able to try it out.

I was somewhat skeptical before trying it, as I have tried so many dozens and dozens of other new materials over the years, and some few turn out to work exactly like you hoped they would, but many others have been a big disappointment and end up getting tossed. So how did this one work? Very nicely! I was pleasantly surprised. It is made by Smooth-On and is their newer Free Form Air.....

Here's my review of Free Form Air:  First of all, Free Form Air costs less than Magic Sculp or Apoxie Sculpt. It's like 2 quarts of material for $25, which will go a long ways. Apoxie Sculpt is $35 for about the same volume of material, and Magic Sculp is around $40 for about that much material (you get a little more I think as you get 5 lbs. for that amount). In any case, the Free From Air appears to be a good value.

Next, it is very easy to mix. Much easier than Magic Sculp or Apoxie Sculpt or any of the other epoxy putties I've tried for that matter. Those are a little bit of a workout to mix in comparison. It comes out of the container very easily and is light and almost fluffy. It almost feels like you are not holding anything at first. But it's consistency is such that it will mix and blend at a much faster rate than the other epoxy putties.

Cured Properties: One of the first things you will notice after it has cured, is that it is not a hard as the other epoxy putties (it is only Shore D 50). Magic Sculp is Shore D 80, and from what I can tell, Apoxie Sculpt is in about the same range (fairly hard when cured). As a comparison, Free Form Air is somewhat comparable to basswood as far as relative hardness/softness. At any rate it is softer than what you may have worked with before.

In My Opinion: Because it is light in weight, you can use much more putty to alter a figure's face (at least twice as much is my gut feeling) and not have the head be too heavy. On the flip side of the scale, I would say it is great for altering a face, but there is a caution regarding other uses. Example: Some like to make heads completely cast from an epoxy putty material. I even show that on my web site as a way to make a head. Here's the reason for the caution.....

When I test a casting material, I always test its breaking strength. I need to know if  'push comes to shove', at what point will this material break? I create test samples about 1/8" thick and then see how much force it takes to break the sample piece. It takes a pretty good force to break a piece of cured Magic Sculp or Apoxie Sculpt. In the tests that I did, Free Form Air has about 3/4 to 1/2 the strength to resist breakage as either on of those.

For this reason, I would not recommend making a cast head with it unless it was properly reinforced and/or cast pretty thick (probably around 3/8" minimum). So closer to the thickness of a basswood head (basswood may actually be more like 1/2" or so in places). Otherwise, I think the casting will be too fragile. However I haven't actually cast any full heads in it yet to verify what might be required. I'm just putting that caution out there based on my destructive testing so far.

In any case, I think it has the potential to be a great material for a light weight alternative to the other epoxy putties, and thought I would share my preliminary findings on this product. It could make it much easier and more feasible to make a custom of or semi-custom face over an existing head casting using this light weight material instead of the heavier epoxy putties you might normally use.   

Tip: When you first mix the material it is pretty much too soft to work with in my opinion. Let it set up a little (approximately 30 minutes) before trying to sculpt with it. It will have more body and be easier to sculpt when it gets slightly firmer in consistency.

Well, I hope you find this review of Smooth-On's 'Free Form Air' of benefit. I will be testing it out further as time allows.

People kept asking, so......

Since 'Sparky' was first introduced as a finished figure, we have had numerous requests to make him available for purchase as a quality kit head. We have listened to our customers and have made this a reality.

You can now purchase this top quality head casting with Sparky's unique, premium sculpted face, which is brimming with personality, and make your own quality figure. You can read more about him on our head casting page.....

Head Castings

The Sparky head, as with all our head castings, is made with our unique head casting process. You can read more about that here.....

Unique Head Casting Process

Kit includes the Sparky head, matching trap door, jaw with brass axle and easy install metal collars for positioning. I've also added some extra flanges inside this unique head for gluing in a pulley axle for a cord controlled jaw. So there are 3 sets of flanges (eye tray, jaw axle, and jaw pulley axle) already inside the head for solidly gluing these items in place.

Also, you don't have to glue his ears in place. Even though Sparky has ears that stick out quite a bit (that's part of his personality and fun look), I worked very hard at creating a special mold (core head molds are special to begin with) where the ears are cast as an integral part of the head casting. Because of this, they are rock solid and aren't going anywhere!

That was a real challenge, but it was very important to me so I kept pushing myself until I got it down. Also, there are some pilot holes pre-drilled in the eyebrow area, so if you are going to install raising eyebrows, you don't have to guess where to drill the holes. 

So, take advantage of all my hard work (I do a lot of this to make my own figure making easier, but I know others appreciate it too!) and check out this new, way cool, Sparky head cast kit!

Sutffed legs with cast feet - attached!

A lot of our kit customers like our cast feet. And a lot of them like our stuffed legs as well. Quite a few have asked if they could get the cast feet already attached to the stuffed legs. We, of course, have said, "Sure. We can do that! No problem." And we make them for them!

To makes things even easier, and so customers don't have to ask for them, we now have these available to easily order on our Cast Feet and Stuffed Legs web page.....

Stuffed Legs with Feet Attached

Just click on the photo or on the above link and that will take you to that part of the web page that tells about them. 

Our customers do some amazing stuff!

Sorry to be so long between blog posts. I see some light at the end of the tunnel here, but its still going to be crazy busy for a little while yet. No complaints. I realize I am very fortunate to be this busy.

I always enjoy hearing from customers and seeing what they have done. Customer and colleague, Rey Ortega sent me a nice email awhile back. I just haven't had time to post this until now. Here's what he said.........

"Dear Mike and Cathy,

Hope all is well with you two.

Attached are pictures of my new figures, The Scat Cat and Duh Wayne, the partied out tourist using techniques from your book.

Thought you might like to share these with your customers.

All the best!

Rey"

 

 

 

 

 

I'm always tickled when people tell me that my book has been of help to them. Of course, Rey is also very talented and that really shows in his finished work. Rey has also done a video diary of working on 'Duh Wayne' on Youtube ..........

Making of DUH WAYNE

Great job done on these figures Rey! Thanks so much for sharing!! Keep in touch and let me know how it goes with your future figure making projects.

Always more than one way to do something. . . .

Having a number of other figure makers dummies (some from contemporary makers, some from makers of old, and everything in between) come through the shop over the years, for repairs, maintenance or sometimes duplication, what I have to marvel at is how many different ways there are to do the same thing.

I've gotten to see the inside of a lot of ventriloquist figure heads, and seen a lot of interesting mechanics. And from some of the feedback I've gotten, mechanics is one of the things a lot of people are interested in when it comes to figure making.

I was looking through some of my archived photos here, and a couple photos I had to stop and look at again, thinking about how there is always more than one way to do the same thing. Here's the inside of one of the figures I was looking at....

 

As I recall, this is a Ray Guyll head, a reproduction of a vintage figure. What I was particularly focusing on in this case were the pulleys or the way the cord for the winkers and such are handled. In this figure the cords go up over styrene tubes which rotate over brass rods. I've use this method myself on some of the figures I've built, and it can work quite nicely.

The advantage to that style is the tubing is easy to find (local hobby store), easy to cut and install, and does not require a cord containment set up like regular pulleys usually do. Speaking of which, as a comparison, here's a pic inside one of my heads with regular pulleys.....

 

Regular pulleys can be more challenging to install as you have to have them fairly well aligned or else the cords will rub and make noise against the pulleys. And you should have some type of cord containment over the pulleys (copper wire in the photos above), lest the cords jump off of the pulley at some point. 

The second biggest challenge with this style is finding some suitable small pulleys. I figured out how to cast my own several years back, so I could have the exact right size pulleys with the diameter of pivot hole I prefer. 

 

Another way to handle the actuation of winkers is with a rocker or lever (like a teeter totter) as shown in the photo below (the gray metal objects). . . .

That's a Rick Price head that has fancy cast rockers, similar to what Chuck Jackson did. The rocker method typically works better with cord controlled eyes. If you look at the photos with the regular pulleys above, that head has rod controlled eyes. The cords coming down off of the back end of the rockers will likely interfere with the movement of the rod control for the eyes.

This is one of the biggest lessons I've learned with figure making over the years:  Anytime you try a new animation or a different version of an animation you've done before, you have to make sure that this new animation is compatible with the other existing mechanics inside the head. Sometimes a very small change can create an interesting or challenging situation.

I have done rockers, and I have done a combination of rockers and pulleys in some of the heads I have made (like pulleys for the winkers and a rocker for the raising eyebrows). As you play with these different styles, you will find advantages and disadvantages to each method.

In any case, this is just one example of several ways to do the same thing. And the above methods are surely not the only way to actuate winkers. If you ever get a chance to look inside some Selberg heads, you will see some different methods yet.

I enjoy studying and developing new ways of doing mechanics inside dummy heads. But mechanics are only one aspect of figure making.  What other aspects are particularly of interest to you? Would love to hear from you.

Handy Shop Fixtures - Part 2

In my last post, I showed you a shop fixture that I use for safely storing various heads that are being worked on. I ended with the question, "when you are working on a head on your workbench or table, what is a good fixture to set the head in so it does not fall over easily, and is easy to use?" That is the subject of Part 2 of 'Handy Shop Fixtures'.

I call it a head holder, but you can surely give it what ever name you like! But that is what it does. It holds a head steady on the work bench while you work on it or temporarily set the head in there while you grab your tools, mix up epoxy, or what ever.

It is very inexpensive, simple to make, very stable (very hard to knock it over) and provides more room around the fixture than some other head holders. Everyone has to find what works best for them, but this is what I use and I have found it to have many advantages over other styles that I've used or seen others use. 

Here's a picture of two of the head holder fixtures I use in the shop pretty much daily. . . .

The head holder can be made with just one hole for a single control stick size or can be made with several holes to accommodate more than one size of control sticks. As you can see it can also have other smaller holes drilled here and there to hold various parts so they don't fall off the workbench or get lost in the shuffle. 

The wood bars on the sides is where the stability comes in. You don't realize how well these work until you actually build and use one of these head holders, and see for yourself how steady they are on the workbench.  I've never had one tip over yet!

Also, I find that the open areas on the front and the back of this style head holder gives more room when moving them around the bench, or putting various tools in front of it, ready to work. This design has the same stability of a large square base, but still has that open feeling to it and is nice to work with.

And this style head holder has a low enough profile that you can easily set most styles of control sticks in place even after all the levers are installed. . . .

And finally, you can easily clamp the head holder fixture to your work table when you need some added stability. . . .

It's a little hard to see in that photo, but the top of a 4" C clamp is clamped around the front left part of one of the side stabilizer bars (the gray object in the middle, bottom part of the photo). I like clamping the fixture in place on the work table when attaching and grooming wigs. Even though the head might not topple necessarily, this keeps the fixture from sliding around, and provides a little extra insurance, just in case.

Want to build one for yourself? I have made a measured drawing and some notes on how to assemble one (or more!) of these handy dandy head holder fixtures. Click on the link below for a free PDF. . . .

Head Holder Plans

You can also easily clamp one of the side stabilizer bars in a bench vise (solidly mounted of course!) and you can then have a head held at various angles (like horizontal, or at 45 degrees) while some glue dries inside a head. Overall, I have found these to be extremely useful in my workshop. I hope that you will find them of good benefit as well!

Handy Shop Fixtures - Part 1

When working on building professional ventriloquist figures, one can easily have several projects going at the same time. While working on the heads, you might do a few steps on one head, set that one aside temporarily, and then work on another head for awhile or another part of the figure.

Where can you put the heads you are not working on that is safe and secure, and out of harms way? Nothing worse than having a head topple over and sustaining some damage, after all you hard work on it. I have a special rack that I made several years back, just for this purpose. Here's a picture of it with several heads on it in various stages. . . .

The heads are up out of the way, in a corner of the workshop, safe and secure, but easily accessed when I am ready to work on them again. This head rack has places for 6 heads. You could just as easily make it for 2, 3, or 4 heads, what ever your needs are. Normally I cover the heads with plastic bags to keep the workshop dust from settling on them, but took them off for the photo.

Back behind the heads is the main shelf area which you can store some of the parts for the figure being worked on if you wish. You could surely make a deeper shelf and have more storage room if you wanted. This size works pretty good for me.

I have found this head rack shop fixture so handy, that I thought I would share it with those following my blog. I have made a measured drawing of the head rack with a few notes to assist you in putting it together. Click on the link below to download a free PDF. . . .

Head Rack Plans

Having the heads up and out of the way also makes more room on your workbenches or work tables. But when you are working on a head on your workbench or table, what is a good fixture to set the head in so it does not fall over easily, and is easy to use? I will show you what I use in Part 2 of 'Handy Shop Fixtures'. Stay tuned! . . .